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The Purpose of Combination Play
Coaches like to talk about combination play but one thing to remember is the players MUST understand the purpose of combination play which is to beat the defenders. While there might be a few...
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Creating Movement and Combination Play
My U13 team that is playing in the 4-3-3 formation played it’s first tournament this weekend. I think it’s very beneficial to have an early season tournament so that the team plays three or four games...
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Forward Passes and Runs
As I’ve discussed in earlier posts, I think that most coaches agree that our players don’t watch the game being played at the highest level enough. Kids in countries where soccer is part of their...
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Teaching Three Runs to Create Options
This is one of those sessions that I read or saw another coach present but I can’t recall where. I wish I could give the coach credit because I’ve found it to be a very useful session to teach players...
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Training 2 v 1 Situations
Playing indoor soccer or Futsal during the winter provides a great opportunity to focus on teaching players how to break down defenses in 2 v 1 situations. This is an important tactical situation for...
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Preparing for Super F National Finals
The purpose of the winter Futsal league is mostly to keep the player’s foot on the ball during the cold midwest winter. But each year the teams in our club participate in the Super F National Finals....
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Train Like the Dutch
There are a number of books that I return to again and again for ideas and inspiration. Dutch Total Football is one of those books. The author, Terry Michler, has studied the Dutch methodology over...
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Dutch Up, Back and Through to Finish
Some coaches may consider pattern play to be limiting. They say, ‘I don’t want my players to be robots that just pass and move in the patterns that I’ve taught them.’ I can understand this and I agree...
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Training Movement in Futsal
In any sport, movement is the key to creating options. When players don’t move or move in easily predictable ways they become easy to defend. The fewer players that are involved in the game, the more...
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Combination Play Exercise
A large part of teaching combination plays is teaching timing. The challenge is that timing is developed through an understanding of the basic principles and then getting the number of repetitions...
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How to Teach Offside Without Working on It
Most young players (and many older ones) have a difficult time understanding how to stay onside. Last weekend I found that something I had worked on in our previous session made it VERY easy for even...
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Small-Sided Games to Encourage Combination Play
For me, the beginning of the season revolves around getting a group of players to work together within a framework of a system. Lately that system has been the 4-3-3. This involves teaching each player...
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Dribbling and Passing Indoors
During the winter I like to focus on ball possession and combination play. The game of Futsal puts a high value on these skills and working on them often will not only make the team more successful...
View ArticleBarca Passing Pattern
This is a passing exercise that has an almost endless number of possible progressions and variations. I also like it because the movements of one play rely on what their teammate does. This kind of...
View ArticleVariations to Diamond Drills
This week’s Animated Drill Video looks at some different variation that you can use with your diamond passing drills. These are some of the variations that were suggested in the Coaching Soccer Weekly...
View ArticleDutch Y Passing Pattern
This week’s Animated Drill Video includes a very functional passing pattern that can be progressed in many different ways and turned into a shooting pattern as well. [wpsharely...
View ArticleCross Shooting Pattern
This week’s Animated Drill Video looks at a very functional and flexible shooting format to use in training or as a pre game warm-up routine. The diagram is created with the session planner on Planet...
View Article2 v 2 + 2 Games
This week’s Animated Drill Video looks at a number of different 2 v 2 games that include additional players outside of the field. By positioning the outside players in various ways you can emphasize...
View ArticleTraining the 4 v 4 + 3
This week’s Animated Drill Video is a little different than our others. It will show you now I taught the early stages of activity to my U11 team. Getting the players to the point where they understand...
View ArticleHourglass Passing Pattern
This week’s Animated Drill Video shows a pattern shape that I’ve discussed in the past but with different progressions and a greater technical focus. The diagrams are created with the session planner...
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